Who would have thought that the little event, which began in 1999 as the Spokane Northwest International Film Festival with a handful of U.S. and Canadian films, would still be going all these years later? Especially when those who were so instrumental in the festival's founding — Bob Glatzer, Leslie Ronald and various others involved in the Contemporary Arts Alliance — are no longer around.

Artistic director Glatzer, of course, passed away in 2010. Ronald passed the festival director's reins to Pete Porter a couple of years ago. The festival endures because Porter and his crew put in hours, days and months of volunteer — say again, volunteer — work.

To make a full disclosure, I serve on the SpIFF Board of Directors. But my participation is minimal, amounting to a few previewed films, a couple of minor writing assignments and I typically moderate one of the festival's annual filmmaker forums. The others, though, they work.

And the results will be on display for all to see beginning tomorrow. I've embedded a trailer for Friday's main opening feature, "The Iran Job," which will screen at the Bing Crosby Theater at 7 p.m. (a second program will play at the Magic Lantern).